The present invention relates to a packaged device that integrates one or more magnetic components into standard semiconductor package technologies. The packed device may include one or more magnetic components only, or one or more magnetic components plus one or more electrical or electronic components, e.g., a semiconductor chip, resistor, or capacitor.
Semiconductor power devices of various types are used in electronic and electrical parts to operate them. For example, power MOSFETs or IGBTs are used to supply power to electronic or electrical parts. These power MOSFETs and IGBTs, in turn, are commonly driven by gate drivers that are coupled to the gates of the power MOSFETs and IGBTs.
The potential difference between the input side and the outside is generally 3-20 volts. However, the required voltage isolation capacity tends to be very large in certain applications, e.g., 3750 volts or more, to protect against sudden spikes or fault conditions. Accordingly, the input side and the output side are isolated from each other using various different techniques. One method is to use a transformer as an interface between the input and output sides. Such a transformer requires one or more magnetic components and windings that are generally bulky. Accordingly, the transformer is placed external to the packaged gate driver, which requires a large footprint and increased manufacturing cost. Another technique is to integrate an opto-coupler within a packaged gate driver. Such a device, which uses optical coupling, does not provide as good a performance as one based on magnetic coupling.